Professor Patrick Honohan:

I remember the occasion and saying we would introduce them but that I did not believe they would be as effective as many people thought. I still hold to that view. It was more a question of giving the matter a high profile. As the Deputy knows, we had been working for 18 months before that but we actually had been working for 18 months before that - it should arguably have been 24 months - to get the banks to a position in which they could credibly do some stuff. They have addressed some issues. We have talked, and may talk later, about how the system is getting us down the road and doing a lot of good but not delivering the full goods at the speed we would like.